Counselling, Psychotherapy and Gestalt Therapy

With thanks to former student Louise for posing as client

HOW IT WORKS

COUNSELLING is one of the "talking therapies" which came initially from the psycho-analytic tradition started by Sigmund Freud and has evolved into many forms since then. There are a number of therapeutic schools of which Humanistic counselling and psychotherapy is a major one.

Therapist and client roles are different, but we are equal as human beings. I use my expertise to explore your life with you. From this professional relationship your personal healing occurs. I see counsellling and psychotherapy less as distinct approaches but more as a continuum between resolution of issues, to characterological change.

PSYCHOTHERAPY is about the depth to which the therapy can go. It means working in a way which looks at how current distress started.

We develop ways to survive our pain and distress, particularly when we are young. These mechanisms may have become hard-wired within our personalities but become outdated in adulthood. New, healthier ways to live are found through long-term psychotherapy.

GESTALT is the approach I use to achieve this deep understanding of the self and the opportunity to make changes. You complete the unfinished business in your life by exploring your present experience. The term is a German word without an exact translation in English, but means wholeness, and the completion of something only partially perceived or understood.

Gestalt is therefore a holistic approach focusing on you as a whole person; mind, body and spirit. My approach is a relational one - i.e. an in-depth experience of what is happening between us as well as the issues raised.

CLINICAL SUPERVISION provides a safe forum for those in practice as counsellors or psychothapists to explore their work. My approach is normative, formative and restorative (see Inskipp and Proctor, 1993).